050 Anarcho-Capitalism

11/12/2014

"On Monday, President Barack Obama urged the Federal Communications Commission to saddle Internet service providers (ISPs) with many of the same burdensome regulations that telephone companies have to comply with. Why would the president seek to regulate a network that seems to be working efficiently without the government? The answer, unsurprisingly, is cronyism.

For years, Internet giants like Facebook, Google, and Netflix have been pushing for network neutrality to avoid paying for the traffic their users hog from ISPs. As it currently stands, Netflix and YouTube account for half of all peak-hour download traffic in the United States, often leading to slow buffering speeds during prime hours. As a result, some ISPs have sought to provide better service to their customers by suggesting that the Netflix and YouTubes of the world pay slightly more for their users to stream videos faster — a pretty clear-cut win for customers if ever there was one."

11/05/2014

"Voting is important—to politicians, because it gives them a sense of validation. Good-government types like the whole balloting ritual, too, because they get warm fuzzies from seeing others invest time and energy into the institution that defines so much of their sense of self-worth. That's why you'll be endlessly nagged—and even receive implied threats—to punch your card, fill in the oval, or tap the screen for the candidate who disgusts you least. But in terms of influencing government officials, grimly performing what others insist is a duty every couple of years and then (with good reason) bitching about the outcome isn't the last word in civic participation."

(Via.) Reason.comHow to Make Life Inconvenient for Politicians Not Just on Election Day — But Every Day

11/04/2014

"A 2010 Pentagon directive on military support to civilian authorities details what critics say is a troubling policy that envisions the Obama administration’s potential use of military force against Americans.

The directive contains noncontroversial provisions on support to civilian fire and emergency services, special events and the domestic use of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The troubling aspect of the directive outlines presidential authority for the use of military arms and forces, including unarmed drones, in operations against domestic unrest."

(Via.) Washington TimesInside the Ring: Directive outlines Obama's plan to use the military against citizens

"I've been called crazy countless times in my life. I was called crazy when I quit school in my teens in order to go out into the world to gain true knowledge and experience. I was called crazy when I quit my 'secure' job at a bank and started an internet company in 1994 (which went on to be worth $240 million at its peak). I was (and still am) called crazy when I began to state forcibly in 2009 that we are nearing the very end of this monetary and financial system.

And I was (and still am) called crazy for thinking bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have the potential to change everything."

(Via.) The Dollar Vigilante Think You Missed the Bitcoin Boat? You Didn't. It Hasn't Even Started Yet.

"Tor, after all, doesn’t just let users hide their identities from the sites they visit, anonymously buying drugs on the Silk Road or uploading leaked documents to news sites through the leak platform SecureDrop. It’s also designed to circumvent censorship and surveillance that occurs much closer to the user’s own connection, such as in repressive regimes like Iran or China. And since Facebook uses SSL encryption, no surveillance system watching either Facebook’s connection or the user’s local traffic should be able to match up a user’s identity with their Facebook activity."

10/20/2014

Could an Irish man selling products globally using Bitcoin as the accepted currency be the next Amazon? Karl Edwards sells everything from e-cigaretes to barbecues and a whole lot more at his site buybybitcoin.com (as in buy by bitcoin), an easy little jingle to remember.

I wonder how this will compete with Amazon? Or will Amazon get ahead of the power curve by becoming early adapters and start accepting Bitcoins themselves?

The older (November 2013) CNN article entitled 8 things you can buy with Bitcoin right now says that, "Most of (Karl’s) business is still in government-sponsored dollars, though. He's not investing heavily in Bitcoin, as he still sees the currency as an experiment. 'At this stage, it's play money,’" Karl supposedly said.

Having just visited the website, it looks rather robust after less than a year… At least for a man who is just "dabbling in” crypto currency, there looks to be some proof of work here - he even has a verified by PayPal logo on his site. But that doesn’t mean much… does anyone have any experience with them yet? If so, leave your comments below.

On the other hand, OpenBazaar may be more decentralized and viable option, until larger organizations like Amazon, Paypal, etc., start accepting this form of payment - hopefully before they find themselves out of a rapidly growing community of people who trust cyber currency much more the current system.

Is this far fetched speculation? Perhaps, but who would have thought that Apple would have the courage to take a step back and protect their customers from “big brother”? How long will it last? Just as long as there are consumers who buy it and prove that they want their privacy.

Who knows what kind of jobs such diversity in the marketplace could open up amongst the local community? One would suppose (with just a cursory overhead pass), everything from local delivery of hemp (now legal in Tennessee) bracelets/clothing to a Wireless Gaming Chairs ($249.95), to local delivery of private underground lemonade manufacturers that cops seem to be so darned sure is best regulated… for your own good of course.

“Five-0 allows citizens to record and store data from every encounter with law enforcement. Find out how people in your community rate your local law enforcement. Submit your reviews and share them with family, neighbors, media and the international community. Rate and review law enforcement and create a safer community for all!"

Apple users can sign up to be on the notification list for the iOS version.

10/15/2014

"In an effort to protect the private communications of iPhone and iPad users, Apple said on Wednesday its latest mobile operating system, the iOS8, has built-in encryption features that does not allow anybody – even police with search warrants – from accessing data stored on handheld devices.

News of the updated features was unveiled together with a statement to customers, some of whom expressed concern after it was revealed that Apple in the past complied with legally-binding police requests to unlock customer devices.

‘Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your pass code and therefore cannot access this data,’ Apple said on its website. ‘So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.’

The statement then attempted to shine some light on national security requests made by the government.

‘A tiny percentage of our millions of accounts is affected by national security-related requests. In the first six months of 2014, we received 250 or fewer of these requests. Though we would like to be more specific, by law this is the most precise information we are currently allowed to disclose.’"

10/12/2014

"I know something about this. A generation ago, much of Latin America was in turmoil. By 1990, a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization called Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, had seized control of most of my home country, Peru, where I served as the president’s principal adviser. Fashionable opinion held that the people rebelling were the impoverished or underemployed wage slaves of Latin America, that capitalism couldn’t work outside the West and that Latin cultures didn’t really understand market economics.

The conventional wisdom proved to be wrong, however. Reforms in Peru gave indigenous entrepreneurs and farmers control over their assets and a new, more accessible legal framework in which to run businesses, make contracts and borrow—spurring an unprecedented rise in living standards. "

10/08/2014

"Someday we’ll look back on politics and shake our heads. It will have been a necessary phase—but not one we’ll want to relive. Necessary, because we have been undergoing a series of phases, none of which we could have bypassed.

We have already entered the next phase. Call it the Age of Connection. Once we realize all the benefits of this next phase, we’ll see how wasteful and acrimonious the prior phase had been."

10/06/2014

"It’s finally happening: the backlash against the most impressive features of digital-age economics. I’ve been waiting for this for years, knowing that we can’t smoothly travel from the old world of command and control to the new world of personal sovereignty without engaging in the intellectual argument.

What’s been missing until recently has been the framework these arguments would take. That’s now becoming clearer. The opponents of markets just can’t reconcile themselves to embracing the very thing they have supposedly advocated for generations: popular empowerment.

The technological upheaval of the last decade has given rise to a wonderful restructuring of some major aspects of economic life. The most impressive fall under the label of the ‘sharing economy’ or the ‘peer-to-peer (P2P) economy.’ They represent an implausible form of egalitarianism, rightly understood: everyone has access to and controls the means of production. It seems like a socialist dream, except that it is being realized through private property, entrepreneurship, and the universalization of the commercial spirit."

09/26/2014

Apparently taxies in Germany can guarantee your safety, which gives them a sharp edge over their more free market competition “Uber.” The new ban on their competition Uber, “…serves to protect the viability and functioning of the taxi services, in which the public has an important interest.” Thank goodness the court is protecting the public’s important interest, seeing as how the public couldn’t function without the governments constant violent protectionism for publics “important” interest. Thankfully, "The court's representative went on to say that the ban was 'necessary to protect customers from dangers to life and limb, because their security doesn't seem to be guaranteed under the business model.’” Which is unlike the guarantee to public safety that the government sanctioned taxis apparently have.

01/10/2013

Obsessed by Megalomania - Hans-Hermann Hoppe - Mises Daily: "All of us, from childhood, have been moulded by state or state-licensed institutions—preschools, schools, universities. So the result you quoted is not surprising. However, if I asked you whether you said yes to an institution having the last word in each conflict, even in those it is itself involved in, you would certainly say no—unless you hoped to be in charge of this institution yourself."

08/07/2012

It is a curious thing that people in the modern world have come to worship democracy at the very same time that they have come to abhor genocide. One would think that if democracy is such a wonderful thing for giving majorities the right to do what they will, then genocide is wonderful for that very same reason. After all, genocide is usually nothing more than the brutal expression of majority opinion in a given territory that some minority population ought to be exterminated. Is there anything more sublimely democratic than that?

08/01/2012

One of the most raw speeches I have ever heard, and easily one of the most powerful videos you will ever watch.

From the video: "The truth of the matter - back then and today - is that these parasites that call themselves leaders are not superior beings, they are not great men and women, they are not honorable, they are not even average. The people that earn an honest living - from sophisticated millionaire entrepreneur to illiterate day laborers doing the most menial tasks you can imagine - those people deserve your respect... Somewhere inside your mostly dormant brains, you know full well that politicians are all corrupt liars and thieves, opportunistic conmen, exploiters, and fear mongers. You know all this, and yet you still speak as if you are the ones who are the stupid vicious animals, while the politicians are the great wise roll models, teachers, and leaders without whom civilization could not exist. You think these crooks are the ones that make civilization possible? What belief could be more absurd?" and "Everything you think you know is upside down, backwards and inside out. But what has to take the cake - the height of your insanity - is the fact that you view as violent terrorist, the only people on the planet who oppose the initiation of violence against their fellow men..."

05/07/2012

Second, while both parties participate in tribal warfare, both sides are not equally culpable. The political system faces what the authors call “asymmetric polarization,” with the Republican Party implacably refusing to allow anything that might help the Democrats politically, no matter the cost.

Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein in their new book which I will not be reading suggest that obstructionist Republicans are the problem and need to "help" the Democrats. When we have cut the budget 80%, eliminated all entitlements and affirmative action programs, eliminated the IRS and returned to the gold standard THEN but only then will I "consider helping" the Democrats. via www.amazon.com

05/04/2012

The 1968 epic Planet of the Apes ends with Taylor the astronaut, played by Charlton Heston, coming upon the Statue of Liberty, except that it is buried in beach sand to the chest and covered in seaweed. Only then does he realize that this strange planet is actually his own planet Earth and that he lives now in the grim future.

It’s a chilling scene for what it symbolizes: liberty buried, neglected, forgotten.

I sometimes feel that way when I read back in time to the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. Such passion they had for the thing that is so neglected today! We don’t know liberty as they dreamed of it.

I just finished reading Benjamin Franklin’s “Information to Those Who Would Remove to America,” published in French and English in Paris, 1784. This was written before the U.S. Constitution while we were still under the Articles of Confederation, which he praises for giving no effective powers to the government.

02/21/2012

My personal recommendation is to sit in Gold and non-financial high quality corporate credit and blue-chip big cap non-financial global equities. Bond and Currency markets are now so rigged by policy makers that I have no meaningful insights to offer, other than my bubble fears